Cacao is the time

Some of you may have been enjoying chocolate candy today, whether in bunny form or otherwise. I have a family member who sometimes gives up sweets for Lent, and he always looks forward to some chocolate on Easter.

But I’m looking forward to some chocolate that I have coming in the mail next week.

I am on a committee organizing a writing festival which will be held this fall at The Fly Arts Center, under the auspices of Bedford County Arts Council. In order to raise some of the money for this project, we’ve been having fundraisers in connection with the plays at The Fly. At the last play, Sherri Frame, our writing festival committee chair, set up and sold snacks in the lobby.

When I realized that The Fly’s next play would be a comedy-mystery called “Death By Chocolate,” I immediately thought of my friend from college Paul Picton. Paul, who at the time was about to take early retirement from a successful career in the aviation industry, came to see me in Shelbyville a few years ago when he found himself in Nashville on business. He told me at that time about his next project: a bean-to-bar chocolate company, Maverick Chocolate, in Cincinnati.

Now, Paul travels around the world, negotiates with cocoa producers for ethically-sourced, fair-trade cacao, then brings those beans to Cincinnati, where he turns them into award-winning small-batch…